Scientist Silenced, FOX criticized.

2. SHH! TOP CLIMATE SCIENTIST SAYS NASA TRIED TO SILENCE HIM.
Physicist James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies told the New York Times that since he gave a talk at the American Geophysical Union meeting on 6 Dec 05, NASA has screened his coming talks and requests from journalists for interviews. In his AGU talk, Hansen had argued that an increase in automotive fuel efficiency standards would significantly cut emissions. The administration policy is to rely on voluntary measures. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), Science Committee Chairman, admonished NASA Administrator Griffin and pledged to investigate. It's not the first time Boehlert has leaped to the defense of climate scientists. Last July, Boehlert objected to harassment of climate scientists by Joe Barton (R-TX), Energy Committee Chairman (WN 8 Jul 05) . WN would suggest that Mr. Boehlert might also want to look into NASA's termination of the Deep Space Climate Observatory.

3. JUNK REPORTING: FOX NEWS COLUMNIST IS AVAILABLE FOR HIRE.
Steven Milloy, who writes the "Junk Science" column for Fox News, praised Rep. Barton for his investigation of Michael Mann, a Penn State scientist whose research showed global temperatures sharply rising in the last century, after hundreds of years with little change. According to an article by Paul Thacker in today's New Republic, Boehlert accused Barton of attempting to intimidate a prominent scientist and "have Congress put its thumb on the scales of a scientific debate." Barton and Milloy have much in common. Both are recipients of huge oil company "donations." Milloy has also ridiculed the dangers of second-hand smoke, while on the payroll of Philip Morris and other tobacco companies.

(As I understand it, the notion that second-hand smoke causes cancer has not been scientifically proven, and stems from a document that has been discredited.)

Update on silenced Climatologist.

1. GLOBAL WARMING: MAYBE SCIENTIFIC OPENNESS IS "ONLY A THEORY."
Last week, WN reported that top NASA climate scientist James Hansen was under pressure to cool it on global warming. The pressure, we have since learned, was coming from 24-year old White House appointee George Deutsch, who had been an intern in the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. Earlier, Deutsch had informed a NASA contractor that the word "theory" had to be added to every mention of the Big Bang. "This is more than a science issue," he declared, "it is a religious issue." On Friday, NASA chief Michael Griffin made it clear to all NASA employees that it's not the job of public affairs to "alter, filter or adjust" material from the technical staff. Wednesday, Deutsch resigned. What was he doing in a sensitive position in the first place? Although his job at NASA was a reward for work in the re-election campaign, he did have a journalism degree from Texas A&M, didn't he? Well, actually no. He lied about that. Deutsch was right about one thing: science issues can also be religious issues.

I'm still waiting for the Ice Age that I was promised back in the 70s.

Re:last comment
You might still get it, Biggy....
The last Major Ice Age was believed to be caused, as a result of vast amounts of fresh water, from melting glaciers in Greenland, entering the Atlantic Ocean, & altering the course of the Gulf Stream due to a alteration of ocean salinity...

Sort of like in The Day After Tomorrow only not quite as quick.....Say by a bout a few thousand years or so.

Interesting video critical of the man-made global warming movement. It's almost 76 minutes long, just so you know.

Ethanol is NOT the answer, according to this article.

Bob Park has this to say about climate change in his July 25, 2008 What's New column:

4. UNCOOL: LOT OF HEAT FROM GLOBAL-WARMING DENIERS.
Suppose, I asked myself, that the deniers are right and the CO2 thing is a mistake? What will happen if the world takes the CO2 thing seriously, adopting common sense measures to counter anthropogenic warming and there never was any warming in the first place? 1) there will more non- renewable resources to leave to our progeny; 2) we will breath cleaner air and see the stars again, the way we saw them half a century ago; 3) we could stop paving over the planet, and 4) cut down on the number of billionaires. If we're wrong we could have a party. We could have a party either way.

I sent the following email to him just now:

Hello, Dr. Park.

I've enjoyed your book, Voodoo Science, and have enjoyed your weekly What's New for some time now. I notice, however, a possibly relevant omission from Item #4 in your current WN. Well, if anthropogenic climate change--or its alleged detrimental effects--is found to be false, I would add:

5) we will end up wasting millions or even billions of dollars.

That we must take action, both for our climate's sake and the sake of our addiction to foreign oil is not something I dispute, but the question of what course of action we end up pursuing hardly constitutes an atmospheric Pascal's Wager.

Luigi Novi

LOL!!!!!!

I don't usually link to clips of The Daily Show, but the way Stewart & co. responded to the fallacies offered by right-wingers pondering the recent snowstorm on the East Coast, was just hilarious. That bit begins at the 3:38 mark.

15 Gulf Oil Spill Myths.

If this source wants to view itself as illuminating the public about "myths", then shouldn't it follow its own example and have chosen a different title for this story, in light of #7?

This is a companion piece (of sorts) to Myth #8

By the way, Luigi, Myths #9, 10 and 11 also use the word "spill" to describe the Gulf Coast disaster.

BP wants to stop paying oil spill victims.

How convEEEEEEnient

Today marks the 35th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Disaster, in the then Soviet Union, one of the worst nuclear meltdowns in history. Debate still rages as to what caused it, many believed that the Soviets skimped on safety measures to keep costs down(which wouldn't surprise me).

The area around the nearby city of Pripyat, Ukraine remains uninhabitable to this day (some say it cold be that way for as long as 6000 years).

Pripyat is a ghost city, time locked in the Soviet era. Imagine visiting it. You can, they do take people on tours there. Of course, it's for a limited time, you have to clear out before you're exposed to too much radiation.

The radiation is not uniformly spread, the guides know where the hot spots are and will steer you away from them. Visitors are in no real danger as long as they don't wander off.

And the zone of exclusion does have people living there, at their own risk.

A friend of mine went there on his honeymoon! Both him and his wife really wanted to see it. He said the scariest thing was a still lake which suddenly erupted when a gigantic fish roared out of the lake.

Yeah, i read about mutated fish around there.

Wonder if we'll see any other such mutations in the area.

Anyone who thinks Global Warming is a myth should see what Western Canada has been through this past week. Place was baked.

How bad did it get? Some details, please?

Lytton, British Columbia was anywhere between 118F and 123F (that's 47.7C to 50.5C for you civilized types)

Yeah, except that it got a LOT hotter after that and is now a pile of smoldering ashes.

Yikes! That IS hot.

After the summer we've just had in Ottawa, no one is gonna convince me that Global Warming isn't real.